With such a formidable array of nations lined up against Japan, Japanese leaders had little time to assess the implications of their attack on Pearl Harbor. They had assumed that the humiliated Americans would not have the stomach to fight and that the U.S. military threat had been eliminated once and for all. This, however, was a grave miscalculation. The Japanese had indeed dealt the United States a crippling blow at Pearl Harbor, but contrary to what the Japanese hoped and believed, the blow was not a fatal one.

Moreover, the attackers had made a number of serious mistakes and miscalculations. First, they had failed to bomb the naval repair facilities at Pearl Harbor, so all but two of the damaged ships were quickly refloated and repaired. Second, the Japanese failed to find and destroy the carriers Lexington and Enterprise...